Two 'plebgate' officers sacked

Two Metropolitan Police officers have today been sacked over the so-called plebgate row.

Keith Wallis and James Glanville were dismissed for gross misconduct, Scotland Yard said.

Andrew Mitchell, then chief whip, was involved in a heated confrontation with another police officer, Toby Rowland, after he was refused permission to cycle through the main gate of Downing Street on September 19, 2012.

Mr Mitchell, who was accused of calling the officer a ''pleb'', was forced to resign his post f ollowing a month of intense media interest in the story.

He attended both the misconduct hearings as an interested party.

Wallis was jailed for 12 months at the Old Bailey earlier this month for misconduct in a public office.

The 53-year-old, of West Drayton, west London, sent an email to Conservative deputy chief whip John Randall, who was his MP, wrongly claiming that he witnessed the incident.

Wallis said he was sightseeing near Downing Street with a member of his family when he saw Mr Mitchell shouting obscenities at the police officers.

The Diplomatic Protection Group (DPG) officer, who was just one year from retirement after a 30-year career, was intoxicated and suffering from mental illness at the time.

In a victim impact statement, Mr Mitchell described his devastation at Wallis's false accusations which "gave traction" to the story in Downing Street.

Initially Wallis stuck to his story after his arrest, but when confronted by the CCTV evidence he came clean.

He told police: "I thought in a stupid, naive, pathetic way I was backing up my colleagues. I just convinced myself I was there."

The misconduct hearing also considered that, since at least June 2011, Wallis had been running a business interest that was not disclosed to the force.

Mr G lanville, who was a serving Pc in the DPG, was not on duty at the gates of Downing Street at the time of the incident, but he was present at a DPG base later that night and passed information about the confrontation to The Sun.

He later provided the newspaper with a photograph of an email sent by Mr Rowland to his supervisors.

Mr Glanville lied about his actions in statements given to detectives.

He was arrested on suspicion of the unauthorised disclosure of information to the media but the CPS decided he would face no further criminal action.

The Met's Assistant Commissioner, Simon Byrne, found the misconduct cases against Wallis and Mr Glanville proven as they had breached standards of professional behaviour in relation to honesty and integrity, confidentiality, orders and instructions and discreditable conduct.